The mystic feels no need
to use the adjective
spiritual
to modify life.
~ Dan Miller

Let’s be clear. There is no such self-contained entity called the spiritual life. There is only life—lived either spiritually or otherwise, that is, as animated by and aligned with Spirit or ignorant of Spirit or unplugged from Spirit or denying Spirit. For those who choose to live Christ, life is understood as being sourced, sustained, and guided by Creator Spirit and it is this one same Spirit depicted in Genesis 1:2 as hovering over the primordial void and moving above the waters who is also the spondic vitality* of the Trinity, the alighting power that descended like a dove on Jesus as he came up out of the waters of the Jordan into his belovedness, and the comforting Advocate Jesus promised to send after his ascension into heaven who comes like tongues of fire to his huddling, confused, and fearful friends in the upper room and burns inside them without consuming them and ignites not only them then but us now with the love of Jesus poured out for each and for all so that we might participate in the extravagant love of the Original Lover by channeling it to others for God’s sake, for our own sake, for the sake of love itself, and for the sake of all the earth.

© Dan Miller, 2022. An excerpt from a work-in-progress. All Rights Reserved.

* Spondic—from the Greek word σπονδη / sponde meaning libation, or pouring out.

ARTWORK: Nicolas de Staël, Paysage Méditerranée (1954)

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